(The Center Square)–Legislation to help recover taxpayer money lost to COVID-19 unemployment fraud passed the U.S. House Tuesday night and now heads to the Senate floor.
Under the Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., the U.S. Department of Justice would have five more years to track down and criminally prosecute those who committed CARES Act related unemployment insurance (UI) fraud during the pandemic.
According to the DOJ, there are still 157,000 open unemployment insurance fraud complaints and 1,648 open investigations.
The current statute of limitations expires on March 27, meaning if the Senate does not pass the bill in sixteen days, thousands of Americans will be left unreimbursed for stolen benefits, and potentially hundreds of fraudsters will get away with their crimes.
“This is a must-pass bill,” Smith said to Senators Wednesday, adding that if the Senate doesn’t act, “the criminals who stole money from the pockets of taxpayers – and continue to do so to this day will get away…a no vote is a vote to allow these criminals to keep what they stole.”
While the Government Accountability Office estimates that upwards of $100 billion in unemployment benefits were lost to fraud during the pandemic, only $5 billion have been recovered.
Currently, more than 2,000 individuals have been charged with, and over 1,400 convicted of, unemployment insurance fraud since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“We know that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans benefited from unemployment insurance,” cosponsor of the bill Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., said on the House floor. “But fraudsters took advantage of an overwhelmed system…this should be an easy yes for everyone in this chamber.”
The bill has 25 cosponsors, all Republican, and is part of the GOP’s efforts to address waste, fraud, and abuse connected to the federal government. Eighty-three Democrats joined all Republicans on the House floor voting in favor of the bill on the House floor.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
